Shadows Across Her Feet
by Cat and Fiddle
Summary: [oneshot, drabble] Hanabi always stood in the shadows of those around her. [Hanabicentric] My suggestion is... don't read.


**Shadows Across Her Feet**

Hanabi always stood in two shadows: Neji's, and Hinata's. Both shadows crossed, intersecting at her feet, then stretched far- so far- away from her feet. Hanabi never stood in her own shadow, it was always covered by Hiashi's, tall and proud, his arms folded, glaring down at her. Or, worst of all, glaring past her, as if she wasn't standing at his feet, trying to look taller than she was, or stronger than she was, or less afraid than she was.

Hanabi didn't like shadows, but she didn't know what to do when Hinata's disappeared. She found that light suddenly cut clear across the very edge of her right foot, and she found that, staring down at her tiny foot, she was so pale. So pale.

She didn't mourn Hinata; no, she had barely taken the time to know her sister at all. Had been raised to loath her sister, because she was better, prouder, worthier... more Hyuuga than her sister ever could have been. What she mourned was the loss of Hinata's shadow hiding her pale, pale feet. The light didn't feel any warmer than the dark.

Eventually Hanabi got used to the light, and sometimes even found herself inching her foot out until it was bathed wholly in the substance, snapping it back quickly when Hiashi remember to glare at her, instead of through her.

Then Hiashi's shadow disappeared, and Hanabi blinked down at her pale, pale, pale little feet. Still so small and ugly and white like the belly of a dead fish. Neji's shadow rotated until it was placed in front of her, swallowing up her shadow. And she found herself staring up at the hollow between Neji's shoulder blades. Neji still folded his arms, still glared, but Neji looked ahead, not back. He didn't have time to look behind him at little Main Hyuuga pests like Hanabi, raised to be a classic Hyuuga.

Neji was too busy reforming the Hyuuga, doing away with the Main and Branch classifications to care if his shadow- the shadow of a tall, proud, strong, grown Hyuuga man, no longer the boy whose shadow had crisscrossed with Hinata's at Hanabi's feet- covered Hanabi's feet, face, and body whole. Too busy to care if Hanabi stepped wholly out of the shadow, until the light shone in her eyes, blinding her.

Hanabi decided she didn't like the light, and went back to hiding in shadows. A grown woman, she hid in the shadow of Neji's children and her arranged husband. She was taller than Neji- she was taller than her husband- but when she looked down at her feet- her ugly, pale, dead-fish-belly-feet- they were still tiny, like a child's, safely hidden in the shadows of those around her.

Hanabi was a Class A kunoichi. She possessed everything that could be desired of a Hyuuga, because creative ways of killing and surviving fill the dark places of the world, and she was always standing in someone's dark shadow. She had no ties to the real world and therefore no qualms doing things most other ninja wouldn't (or couldn't) do. Right up there with Hatake Kakashi and the other spooks, though Hiashi had flatly refused to allow her to join ANBU, because he had still firmly believed she would inherit clan leadership with Hinata out of the way, and by the time he had been gone, she had grown too old to join.

When Neji's shadow disappeared and her husband's followed, Neji's children and Neji's children's children stepped up, and Hanabi's old, wrinkled, tired feet remained hidden in those shadows she had known all her life. She was old, and she was no longer taller than the men around her because her back was bent and her shoulders scooped forward and her knees knocked together. The foot of her cane was cast in light, but she didn't care because her pale, ugly, tiny little fish-belly-feet were still hidden in shadows.

Hanabi never learned to stand on her own. As a child she had made a show of being self-sufficient, and indeed she had been, all the way until her old age, but self-confident she was not. Hanabi didn't know how to do things that weren't expected of her. She didn't know how to decide her own fate, as Neji had once shouted at her in the aftermath of Hiashi's death when he was clawing his way to the top desperately like a wounded dog.

Neji was wrong. She could decide her fate; she just chose to keep her feet safely in the shadows she knew so well. Her ugly, pale little dead-fish-belly-feet that she died with.

* * *

So... this was probably a failing attempt. The beginning is pretty much the only thing I like. Well, the very last sentence wasn't too god awful, either... it's the middle I hate. In fact... reading over it... the middle makes me want to gag, it's so bad. Oh well. I wanted to write something sad and I felt like writing something about Hanabi and I did it (poorly) so shoot me. But I killed Hinata! That was pretty exciting. Killed Hiashi and Neji, too. Not so excited about Hiashi, though I've always had a morbid interest with different ways of creatively killing the members of Team Gai, Neji most of all. I've had a few people rant on me about that, actually...

That aside, if you got this far in reading all that... junk... up there, you must have a gut of steel to be able to stomach all that crap. Thanks for reading, you're free to go and wash out your eyes to get rid of the poorly written words now burned into your retinas. Too bad it was so awful, 'cuz the title actually sounded kinda cool. I apologize to whatever writer in the future wants to use the title but ends up not using it 'cuz it's already been wasted on this sorry excuse for a fic.


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